Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I am here substituting for Senator Kyne.

I thank the committee and our guests for coming in. This is something I have been aware of for a number of years. When Senator Kyne gave me the opportunity to come in and speak, I thought that finally there will be a tranche of this getting out into the public arena. I am mindful of people such as Ms Kitty Holland, who has spoken about it over the years.

No woman should have to come before a committee and speak about matters of such a personal nature in order to get action. Unfortunately, there is quite a history of women having to do that and bare their souls in order to get action.

I will be rudimentary in how I bring my argument through because it is based on some of the cases and instances that I know of. In the first instance, women may not necessarily know. They know they had a treatment but do not know that the treatment was mesh. Would that be the case?